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Academy of Distinguished Alumni radio spot - April 9, 2025
Transcript
Shauna Johnson: At West Virginia University, mountaineers go first. One of this year's five inductees into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni is Laura J. Wood, a 1977 graduate of the WVU School of Nursing. Now executive Vice President of Patient Care Operations, System Chief Nurse Executive and Sporing Carpenter Chair for Nursing at Boston Children's Hospital, she serves as an example of the best of West Virginia's University.
Laura J. Wood: I share about the people of West Virginia, I share about the work ethic, I share about the values, it shaped who I was. And it was different, I had lived in several places around the country and when I came here, I felt like I saw the best of humanity.
Speaker 1: Wood's progressive healthcare leadership contributions span three renowned academic health systems, including Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Ties though still bind her to WVU, especially through friends she made as a student.
Laura J. Wood: We really formed close bonds. We helped each other academically, but being a nursing student is really a challenge in terms of evolving yourself personally and emotionally. You see death often for the first time. You see very poignant situations, people and families in really strained and difficult situations. And so we've formed incredible bonds being in these novel situations with one another. And many of these are lifelong friendships now that go back more than 50 years.
Speaker 1: Her advice for today's nursing students.
Laura J. Wood: Just keep swimming. That's one of my mantras that I say to myself. Because being a nurse is not easy, the conditions are not always easy. Lots of staffing challenges have existed since I started as a nurse. But just healthcare in general is very demanding, both physically and emotionally. I think you have to have endurance in you, but the rewards are huge. I've had so many opportunities and my life was changed by being around other people who were mission-centric and who cared about people and having an impact in their health and in their lives.
Speaker 1: Wood was recognized earlier this year with other Academy of Distinguished Alumni members, Linda Arnold, Luke Frazier, Sharon Burmeister Lord, and Diana Murphy. So let's go. Follow our stories at wvutoday.wvu.edu.
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